I have a decent-sized music collection, on my hard drives, in CDs, cassettes, and LPs. Most of it was obtained legally from overpriced stores. A lot of it is bootlegs. Some of it I downloaded illegally, and I have no guilt for that because I feel I’ve paid my dues. If I download a commercially available song illegally (which hasn’t happend in close to a year), it’s because I want to get a feel for the artist. Or maybe it’s an old song from an album I sold years ago.

But I’ll buy just about any music if it’s $10 or under, just because I think that’s a good buy. Like a DVD that’s $15 or under, I feel that money is well spent. I can usually get a brand new album, like Get Behind Me Satan, for $10 at Target or Best Buy on its release date. (Sorry, Electric Fetus.)

So you’d think I’m all about iTunes or Napster or other legal music download services. But I’m not. As you read recently in this here blog, I had an iPod and sold it because I simply wasn’t using it, and I do not like the sound of compressed music. But still, $9.99 for an album is decent, and 99 cents a song is a steal.

However, nobody has discussed what is lost (besides sonic quality) when downloading music (either legally or illegally). Album art is a dying art, I’m afraid. Perhaps when the industry wakes up and realizes that soon enough, more downloads will be purchased than CDs sold, they will include album art with the download.

I am totally willing to pay $1 more for a real CD with album art. Something tangible. I like displaying my music collection in my living room. I’m proud of it. I can’t do that with downloads. I’ve got a shelf of CDs I’ve either downloaded or burned from friends…they are all in those stupid skinny jewel cases so despite keeping them in alphabetical order, I have to flip through them one-by-one to locate what I need. I’m soon moving all of those to a huge magazine CD holder, but still, the glory of displaying even all those skinny cases is gone with such a practice.

Album art has gone through major changes. It’s bad enough that it was shrunk down to a quarter of its original size from the LP cover to a CD, which of course has its own benefits (bigger booklets). Packaging as a whole is itself an art, and becomes part of the album experience. Take Sigor Ros’ album ( ), for example. I’m sure Beck’s latest album had a special edition that included a large book-like case, extra tracks, and a (crappy) DVD just so people would pay the extra money instead of download the ablum.

Will album art die or simply be included in future downloads? iTunes’ attempt to “display cover art” is incredibly lame. When you rip a CD with Windows media player, it does include some cover art, but as far as I know, iTunes does not do this. I think this is such a shame.

The article questions statistics that show obesity rising with the price of a pack of smokes. It also discusses why Parisian women manage to stay thin while they eat bad food all day long. The key is that they smoke.

For decades a typewritten document could be traced by fairly easily to the typewriter, and then usually the writer. This isn’t much differnt, comparitively.

I usually agree with the EFF and ACLU, but this is ridiculous. Don’t print anything incriminating then! You shouldn’t have anything to be afraid of unless you have something to be afraid of. Give the FBI something to go by, okay? What on earth would an average person be scared of?

Know what else–when you empty your recycle bin, your files aren’t really deleted! Gasp! We should all get down Microsoft’s throat and tell them it’s a human rights issue!

Yes, there ought to be a disclaimer. But if you’re doing nothing wrong, it’s not hurting anything. If some dumbass is going to plant a bomb at the Mall of America and he prints out papers about how to make a bomb, a map of the Mall, and a schedule to pass out to his helpers–I want the FBI to know that.

If you’re a fan of Six Feet Under, I’m sure that like me, you can’t stop thinking about last night’s episode.

It was brilliant. That episode exemplified why I watch that show. Why I’m in love with all the characters. We’re all like someone, or like all of them. I’ve got a little bit of everyone in me–I’m passive-aggressive like Ruth, I get scared of commitment like Nate, I’m anal like David, I never fit in like Claire…I love it.

Someone on the HBO SFU message board said that it would be really nice irony if Nate isn’t dead–that he ends up vegetable-like or disabled in some way while his newborn baby is completely healthy. I bet the real story will be as good as that, and then 10 times better.

What a fuckhead. He’s so predictable–and the writers know this. That’s why the unpredictable happened–his AVM fucked up without warning. Plausible and convienant, especially since nobody likes him any more.

But poor Brenda. She’s the best, morally and intellectually-speaking, character on the show. Which is funny because she’s also the atheist. Sure, she needs to be reminded of the best way to act sometimes, but then she’ll do it and realize her mistake. She’s that comfortable with herself, and that is truly admirable.